Chapter 203<div>
<h3 style="letter-spacing:-0.015em"><strong><~> Chapter 203</strong>
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I had just finished maintaining my armor and cleaning it up. It was still in great shape, it was much better than the armor I had been using before. I''d gotten used to donning it fairly fast and it was always prettyfortable. I tested all the straps after getting my chest piece in ce before looking over my status as Iced up my boots.
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<em>[Status]</em>
<em>Name: Lilith Baphomet</em>
<em>Race: Greater Subus [Race Hidden - Disyed as Beastkin (Sheep)]</em>
<em>Gender: Female</em>
<em>ss: [Novice Magic Swordsman] Lv. 12</em>
<em>Level: 50</em>
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<em>Stat Spread:</em>
<em>Strength: 100</em>
<em>Vitality: 100</em>
<em>Charisma: 10 (735)</em>
<em>Luck: 20 (745)</em>
<em>Finesse: 70</em>
<em>Magic Control: 100</em>
<em>Magic Force: 100 (160)</em>
<em>Speed: 70 (90)</em>
<em>Endurance: 10</em>
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<em>Karmic Energy: 7232</em>
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<em>Unallocated Stat points: 0</em>
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<em>Skills:</em>
<em>Haggling Lv. 15</em>
<em>Swordsmanship Lv. 38</em>
<em>Illusion Magic Lv. 5</em>
<em>Light Magic Lv. 11</em>
<em>Light Maniption Lv. 12</em>
<em>Uuna Riding Lv. 13</em>
<em>Linguistics Lv. 10</em>
<em>Ritual Magic Lv. 10</em>
<em>Drawing Lv. 12</em>
<em>Mana Sense Lv. 6</em>
<em>Luck Magic Lv. 6</em>
<em>Enhancement Magic lv. 8</em>
<em>Flying lv. 7</em>
<em>Intimidation lv. 1</em>
<em>Internal Mana Maniption lv. 4</em>
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<em>ss Abilities</em>
<em>Merchant Skill - Calctions</em>
<em>Prostitute Passive - Resist Disease</em>
<em>Prostitute Passive - Magic Fingers</em>
<em>Prostitute Skill - Ease Pain</em>
<em>Prostitute Skill - Freshen Up</em>
<em>Prostitute Passive - Tight Fit</em>
<em>Prostitute Passive - Group Dynamics</em>
<em>Prostitute Passive - Go Unnoticed</em>
<em>Prostitute Passive - Resist Sleep</em>
<em>Prostitute Skill - Center of Attention</em>
<em>Prostitute Skill - Nightcap</em>
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<em>Special Passives:</em>
<em>Soulbound Companions</em>
<em>Special drop rate up</em>
<em>Sightspeak</em>
<em>Double Down</em>
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<em>Innate Abilities:</em>
<em>Karmic Retribution</em>
<em>Being of Karma</em>
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<em>Racial Traits:</em>
<em>Subus Constitution</em>
<em>Sexual Appetite Lv. 47</em>
<em>Subus Bond</em>
<em>Greater Subus Shifting</em>
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<em>Titles:</em>
<em>[World Traveler - Hidden Title]</em>
<em>[Origin of Subi - Hidden Title]</em>
<em>[Dungeon Destroyer]</em>
<em>[First Explorer]</em>
<em>[Early Intervention]</em>
<em>[Demon Hunter]</em>
<em>[Follower of Sorsette]</em>
<em>[Mother of the Subi - Hidden Title]</em>
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Nothing had changed sincest time so I didn''t dwell on it. In fact, parts like the ss abilities were getting a bit long as well so I would probably start ignoring them unless they became relevant. Most of my ss abilities were just prostitute things at this point. While they were useful in some situations outside their normal use, they weren''t usually that impactful. Though a few would be useful in social situations amusingly enough.
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I sighed and looked over at the book Morrigan had brought me. It was a long reference guide of ritual circleponents. The book had been exactly what I was looking for and was what Sorsette had given me as a gift. Unfortunately, I still didn''t have time to study it. There were too many other things going on but I was dying to look through it and make my<em>[Light Scribing]</em>spell more useful. With a guide like this, I could probably even put together offensive spells and use them inbat. I wasn''t sure how viable it really was but it would take experimentation and time I just didn''t have right now. For now, I slid the book into my chest next to the Book of Recollections I had been saving. I could already see the synergy, if I got good at it, I might even be able to build spells on the fly.
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"Alright Mimi, I''m done with my chest," I told her.
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"Sounds good!" she said cheerfully before whisking it away into her pocket dimension. She takes the security of our belongings very seriously, zealously so, and doesn''t like to leave the chests out when we leave. I find it a little cute, if sometimes inconvenient. She has such good control of her abilities now though that the hard part has more to do with not revealing her ability to others than her actually using it. She''s even gotten better at grabbing stuff<em>out</em>of our chests if we want them, but we don''t do that very often.
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I looked over at the twins who had finished dressing in their matching maid uniforms. Their neck pieces looked odd without the cors there. They left a pretty noticeable gap and the twins had been fussing over it a little this morning, trying to adjust it without covering their necks where the cors would be, to avoid confusion.
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"Why don''t you just leave the neck pieces off?" I asked. The twins both looked at me with a frown and I realized that I had just fucked up.
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Morrigan replied with a tinge of hurt in her voice, "I know that you don''t really... understand how we feel about this. But this neck piece that wrapped around our cor means that we were recognized for our value as...<em>servants.</em>It signifies the trust you ce in us as your representatives. Even if we weren''t your ves—"
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"You''re not ves anymore," I interrupted.
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"Um... right.<em>Even though</em>we are no longer your ves, this neck piece still signifies the trust you ce in us and we wear it with pride. It''s... disheartening that it doesn''t fit correctly without the cors... like we lost a sign of your trust..." she finished.
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I walked over to her and ced my hand on her shoulder. "I''m sorry. I stillpletely trust you with my life if that helps. Do you want to look for a tailor to adjust it for you today?"
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Her pout softened into a gentle smile. "I would like that."
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"Do... you still want to wear servant outfits now that neither of you are ves? You could wear more traditional adventuring gear..." I asked. I hoped this wasn''t as much of andmine as thest question had been.
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"I''m... not sure," Morrigan replied before looking at Torien.
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Torien frowned back at her before shrugging. "We''ll... talk about thatter. I''m happy with this outfit for now... maybe it''ll be easier to wear it like nothing happened for the moment..."
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I nodded. "Sure, whatever the two of you prefer. Maybe we should buy some new clothes just in case regardless though." They both nodded to me in response but didn''t seem keen on continuing down that train of thought.
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For now, they decided to wear the loose servant cors as normal, even if they looked a bit odd without their normal cors under them. I''d make sure to make it a high priority to get it fixed assuming we were allowed to leave the embassy. I wasn''t sure how this uing meeting was going to go.
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When I opened the door and went down the stairs, the rest of the group blushed when they saw me. "What?" I asked.
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Raya snickered, happy to be the first one to answer. "You left the bond open when you and Be had your fun this morning. I woke up to an orgasm after a<em>nice</em>wet dream."
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I coughed and turned away. Be looked mortified, her ears had gonepletely red. Before I could say anything, the door to the guest residence opened and a short female elf walked through the door. She was wearing a green blouse that entuated herrge breasts and ck dress pants that gave her a bit of a boyish look despite them. She had long blond near-white hair and purple eyes. Sticking out of her hair, she had the telltale ears of an elf but looked a bit young for how she was dressed. I suspected her looks were deceiving from the way she carried herself though. She nced at me with a raised eyebrow. "I assume you are Miss Lilith? Am I to take it that you wish to meet with Master Tangleleaf while wearing your armor then?"
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"...Would that be impolite?" I asked.
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She hummed. "The etiquette is tricky on this one. Do you wish to present yourself as a mercenary or as a political ally first and foremost? If this meeting is meant to be more political, then perhaps formal clothes would be more proper."
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"Uhh..." I turned to Cecilia desperately looking for help. She was wearing an outfit that looked very simr to the elf woman''s though hers had a silvery blouse with flowers stitched into it.
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She shrugged. "It''s up to you how you want to present yourself. I think either would work but it depends on how much you actually want to tell them about yourself."
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The elf woman frowned at Cecilia''s response but didn''t say anything to that. Instead, she scanned the rest of our group before stopping on Silva who was also wearing her normal armor. "I''m told that the rabbit demi-beastfolk was also asked to attend, but from the description of her character I assume she doesn''t have any clothes to wear either."
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Silva shrugged. "I''m Lilith''s... bodyguard. I don''t need fancy clothes, she''ll speak for me."
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The elf woman nodded to her in understanding and focused back on me. "You have a half-bell before the meeting but others have already begun to gather. Would you like me to lead you over now?" she asked.
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I scratched the base of my horn. "Uh, I actually think I<em>will</em>change if you don''t mind."
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She closed her eyes and bowed. "No trouble at all. I will wait here until you are ready to leave."
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"Mimi, will youe with me please?" I asked. She was currently transformed into her golden-furred disguise again and wearing regr work clothes.
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"Sure!" she hopped up and followed me up the stairs. Once we were back in my room she instantly removed the armor I had spent all morning maintaining and handed me the Noble''s clothes I had tailored for myself. They fit rather well still despite the small amount of muscle I had put on. Stats hindered your ability to visibly be more muscr but I had apparently been so active that I had gained some anyway. Once I was finished, the two of us walked back down the stairs.
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When the elven woman saw my change of clothes, she smiled at me. "Those clothes look fine on you Miss Lilith. I''m d you decided to change." She looked around the group. "How many of your confidantes will be joining you?"
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I looked around. "Everyone who wishes to attend I suppose."
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After a quick conversation, the final group that would be going with me was Be, the Twins, Silva, Cecilia, Talis, and Lorriene, to negotiate the pantharian''s escort to the Northern Greens.
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The rest of the group would wait for me to return in the guest quarters we had been put up in. Mimi likely wouldn''t be able to contribute much and Raya and Sibyl felt out of ce here. I got the sense that they would have joined us if I had asked them to, but they felt like they didn''t have any ce trying to help negotiate. I felt like they weren''t giving themselves enough credit, it''s not like I was a negotiator either, and Raya in particr could be<em>very perceptive</em>when she wanted to be. Still, they argued that they were just prostitutes and I didn''t want to pressure them toe if they didn''t want to. I didn''t think any of us were in any danger here, Cecilia had made it clear to me that the elves were happy that the king was dead and wouldn''t turn us in for it after taking us inst night. So we had that going for us. This meeting had more to do with our future rtionship with them.
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The elven woman led us through the courtyard to the main building and into arge meeting room with lots of space on the sides for sidebar discussions. There were six other people here already, four of them men and two of them women, and I noticed the woman who had escorted us here didn''t leave, instead, she walked over to one of the men and began to talk with him. I looked around but I didn''t see Master Tangleleaf yet.
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The elves were standing in pretty obvious groups. All of the men and women wore fine dress shirts or blouses in matching colors. The Tangleleafs wore green, judging from Cecilia, the Silvergroves wore silver, and there were also two wearing purple and two wearing dark red. It almost appeared as if they were wearing matching team jerseys based on political affiliation. The idea made me chuckle at theparison of such fancy shirts being the equivalent of team colors.
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One of the elven men walked over to me with the woman who had escorted us here. He was also wearing a green shirt with ivy stitched into it. He was a bit taller than she was but not by much. The elves of this world weren''t cartoon-sized but they weren''t as tall as modern fantasy elves were usually depicted either. I was taller than both of them, but that wasn''t a surprise since I was taller than Tarklin as well.
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"Hello miss!" I could instantly tell he had a high<em>Charisma</em>and I snapped on the<em>charisma</em>bonus I got from<em>[Being of Karma]</em>as he held his hand out to me. I could tell the elf woman also noticed because her eyes widened just a bit.
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I reflexively adjusted my posture and took his hand. The bonus to<em>Charisma</em>made it easy to match his smile in intensity. Just as I knew what to look for, he also instantly recognized the effects of the ability I had activated.
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His grin grew wider. "I see you''re not as out of your element as I had expected. It''s a pleasure to make your acquaintance miss. I hear your name is Lilith, may I inquire if you have a surname?"
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"Yes, my name is<em>Lilith Baphomet,</em>it''s nice to meet you," I replied.
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"Ah, I have not heard the Baphomet name, though it sounds quite strong. I am Tealo Tangleleaf, Master Routil Tangleleaf''s brother, and this here is my niece, Nealli Tangleleaf. I hear you have— Oh, I suppose we''ll talkter, it seems we''re about to start," without another word he turned to the door just as it opened.
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My eyes widened when not only did Routil Tangleleaf, the man I had metst night, walk through the door, but Tarklin Silvergrove followed him in from behind. He looked just as he had before, other than his clothes. Like Cecilia, he wore an almost mboyant silver dress shirt tucked into his well-tailored dress pants. When he spotted me he smiled wide and gave me a quick wave.
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